Doc gets bike from Tour de France rider after his is stolen

‘Enjoy the new wheels and thank you to you and your fellow NHS Heroes,’ Luke Rowe tweets after reading how an NHS doctor’s bike was stolen while he was working in an intensive care unit. (teamineos.com pic)

LONDON: A doctor with Britain’s National Health Service whose bicycle was stolen while on a shift has received a replacement from Team Ineos rider Luke Rowe.

Rowe read a Twitter post from Tom Roberts, who described how his bike was taken while he worked on an intensive care unit at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

Welshman Rowe immediately got in touch with the offer of a new bike that was due to arrive on Monday.

“Enjoy the new wheels and thank you to you and your fellow NHS Heroes,” Team Ineos said on its Twitter feed.

Roberts was familiar with Team Ineos cyclist Rowe, 30, and former Tour de France stage winner Boardman.

“I’ve heard of them and know who they are,” he told the BBC. “I don’t really follow cycling; my bike is just a little run around, it wasn’t an expensive bike, just something to get me to work and back.

“He (Rowe) asked me what my height was and what sort of bike I’d had and he said he’d drop something around in the morning.”